ELECTIONS: Guyana remains of strategic interest to the U.S.

Last Updated on Wednesday, 23 July 2025, 17:54 by Writer

In the wake of a policy decision by the Donald Trump administration that the United States would not comment on foreign elections, American Ambassador to Guyana Nicole Theriot on Wednesday said Guyana continues to be of strategic interest to her country.

“I think there are multiple factors…Food security is also incredibly important to the United States and I think we all saw how important it was when we dealt with COVID so Guyana’s role in food security, energy security, its strategic partnership with us and its defence of democracy, all those things make Guyana an incredibly important partner for the United States,” she said.

The Ambassador also said Guyana is “incredibly important” to the U.S. because it is a strong democracy in the Western Hemisphere that has seen a bit of back-sliding. “The fact that Guyana is such a strong democracy, that’s an ally for us, and we want to do everything that we can to maintain that,” she said.

She said “none whatsoever”, when asked whether the U.S. had changed its position on Guyana as a country of strategic interest. She noted that an American Senator recently introduced a Bill to “increase even further past” the security agreement that Secretary of State Marco Rubio signed with Foreign Affairs Minister Hugh Todd earlier this year. “He is looking to even increase that security cooperation so, quite the opposite, we’re looking to get closer to Guyana to make you an even closer partner,” she said.

Ms Theriot stressed that her country is unreservedly committed to the democratic process in Guyana. “The United States is incredibly supportive of free, fair, credible and transparent elections here in Guyana,” she said. The U.S. envoy said the U.S. was assisting with training of the Guyana Police Force in elections-related security such as “crowd control tactics” by law enforcement trainers from Miami’Dade, and the New York Police Department.

The U.S. is also funding the majority of the Organization of American States (OAS) election observation mission, and the Embassy will be fielding its own observation team of about 25 members. “We’re coordinating all of this with other missions, with the Private Sector Commission. For example, with the American Chamber of Commerce-Guyana, with the NGOs and international organisations that are in town so that we all know what each other is doing and we can make sure that we are providing the support that’s needed,” she said.

Ms Theriot emphasised that the U.S. was not imposing its assistance on Guyana. Rather, she said her government was responding to Guyana’s requests for assistance. “We want Guyana to tell us what they need. We don’t want to just give you the things you need so it’s really important to us that we get that feedback from all of the Guyanese organisations that we’re working with,” she said.